Radio Active #51: Shadowrun, Walking & Baby Talking, Mac Envy, Star Wars RPG

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Baby NeutronLad is trying hard to become Toddler NeutronLad as he learns to walk and starts baby talking. In more geeky news, I’ve got a review of the Shadowrun first-person shooter for Xbox 360/Vista, an announcement about my Libris Mortis review on The Tome podcast and geek out over Apple’s new edition of Mac OS X.

I also take a look at Google’s new themes for its personalized iGoogle home page service, and do an in-depth review of the Star Wars: Saga Edition RPG from Wizards of the Coast.

Getting the Podcast

Show Notes

  • Nuketown News
    • My review of the first person shooter Shadowrun is up on SCIFI.com
    • Luke is on the cusp of walking — he’s taken a bunch of tentative first steps, and if we sit down on the floor, he’ll walk between us. But he’s not quite up for walking from Point A to Point B.
    • Suddenly interested in baby dolls — fascinated by their faces and putting them in and out of Jordan’s baby stroller. Probably just mimicking his big sister, but I think he’s getting really interested in people, real and otherwise.
    • He’s talking a mile a minute. None of it makes any sense, but it seems like he’s starting to come up with his own baby talk words for things. A favorite is “Da-Doh”, which is not Daddy; we have no idea what it is.
    • Shadowrun reviewed on SCFI
    • The Tome
    • The Walking, Talking Kid
  • Promo: The Game Master Show
  • Netheads
    • Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off today with a Steve Jobs’ keynote and a bunch of announcements regarding the new Leopard edition of Mac OS X.
    • Naturally, as a Mac fan, I’m geeky out. And eager to get my hands on the new OS.
    • Leopard adds a few spots
      • Stacks: Browseable lists of files; seems to work like my right-clickable Dock folders do now.
      • Quick Look for viewing popular file types; I expect this to be very useful at work, when I need to view fills but don’t need to launch Photoshop to do it.
      • New Finder will allow searches across multiple Mac; this would be useful now when my primary computer is a PowerMac desktop and I’m working on my work MacBook Pro laptop, but might not be as handy when my primary home computer becomes a mac book.That said “Back to my Mac” search allows you to look at computers even when you’re on the road, across the net, which is very cool.
      • Spaces — multiple virtual desktops — is nothing new for Linux users (and even Mac users who’ve tried one of the many third party or Unix options. This is integrated into the new OS though, and I see this as being very handy — I expect to have “Web”, “Writing” and “Audio/Video” spaces as soon as I have Leopard.
      • http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/06/11/leopardnew/
    • Safari 3.0 Beta for Mac and Windows:
    • It’s not all about Mac though. I’ve been enjoying iGoogle, which is a slightly enhanced version of Google’s personalized home page. It integrates nicely with Google Reader, which is rapidly becoming my primary feed reader; mouse overa feed item and you get a preview.
    • Too bad Gmail and Google Docs/Sheets doesn’t do that.
    • Love the “Google Themes”, which allow you to pick themes such as “Beeach”, “Tea House” and “City Scape”, set your zip code, and then have the scene change based on your current weather and time of day.
    • I find the beach very relaxing.
    • Mac Envy
    • iGoogle Themes
  • Promo: GBN – Goblin Broadcast Network
  • Review: Star Wars: Saga Edition RPG
    • Details
      • Star Wars: Saga Edition Role-Playing Game
      • 286 pages
      • MSRP: $39.99
      • Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
      • ISBN: 978-0-7869-4356-2
      • Buy it from Amazon.com
    • Summary
      • Third edition of Star Wars RPG released by Wizards of the Coast.
      • Unlike previous efforts, this is the first one that doesn’t feel like “D&D in Space”.
      • Five base classes:
      • Streamlined skill system that collapses Spot, Listen, Sense Motive and other “notice” type skills into one “perception check”. Spending skill points is replaced by a binary “you’re trained, you’re not trained” system designed to replicate the movies tendency for everyone to be minimally competent.
      • Force powers are overhauled; now it’s a skill check.
      • Talent trees replace many classes; you can now have three very different kinds of soldiers, Jedi, scouts or whatever based on what talent trees you pick.
      • Force points do more: they can buff rolls, but they can also save a character about to die and can be used to power special abilities.
    • Review
      • Everything is streamlined, which makes for faster play. Fewer attacks per round, the combination of saving throws and armor class, it all makes move better
      • Expanded use of Force points beyond just buffing rolls (they can also be used to power certain abilities as well as to prevent instant death) is much appreciated and helps balance the game’s potentially lethal nature.
      • Simpler but not dumber: Diehard d20 fans may mourn the loss of skill points, but replacing them with skilled/unskilled generic skills should be a lot easier on new players.
      • Talent trees, inherited from d20 modern, provide each class with diversity beyond that normally achieved through feats and skills.
      • The game stresses team play through feats and talents that allow characters to easily assess and help their other players, whether its quickly scaning the battle field to see whose below 50% of their hit points or jumping in front of an incoming attack to save a companion.
      • “Gazetteer” section is exceedingly limited, containing basic information about traveling between star systems and some basic information about several signature Star Wars worlds. Then again, this being Star Wars, that information is available in a wide variety of ways on the web starting with Lucasfilms’ own Star Wars Databank.
      • Font size is smaller than in the Revised edition, and the book itself is square. The later isn’t a big issue — it makes it distinctive and surprisingly easy to read — but the font can be hard on the eyes.
      • Artwork from earlier editions is recycled into this one, but in general the screen captures from the film are crisper, and the use of drawings and other illustrations is much stronger.
      • We’re not sure of the new “Condition Track”, which is designed to simulate an individual’s worsening condition during battle as they take exceptional hits, is a useful innovation or just busy work. More game play is needed, but I think it’s a good idea.
      • Pros
      • Cons
  • Promo: Random Signal
    • http://www.randomsignal.com
  • Outro
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